Compact discs are used as a storage medium for digital information. The data is stored on the compact disc by varying the optical characteristics of the disc. This digital information can be any type of data, such as, but not limed to, audio, image, photo and/or video information. In other words, the digital data stored on a compact disc can vary from disc to disc. Different types of compact discs can be provided, a traditional type of compact disc is manufactured using a plastic mold operation. Each compact disc manufactured using the same mold contains the same digital information. As such, large production runs of compact discs which contain the same information, such as a musical composition, are manufactured in an economical manner by using a molding process.
A different type of compact disc which is commercially available is a recordable compact disc. This type of disc is manufactured such that it does not contain data thereon, but can be programmed after it is manufactured. The optical characteristics, therefore, of the compact disc are modified after it is fabricated depending upon the data that is stored on the disc. In the context of the present invention, it is to be understood that reference to a compact disc (CD) includes and encompasses Compact Disc Recordable “CD-R”, Compact Disc Readable “CD-RW”, CD-ROM, CD-PROM, Digital Versatile Disc “DVD”, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, or any disc for data storage.
To identifying the data stored on a compact disc, a label is often printed on one side of the compact disc. For large manufacturing runs of a common compact disc, a silk screen process is often used to apply the label to the compact disc. For small production runs of compact discs, such as those using recordable compact discs, a silk screen operation may not be economical. A custom printing operation, therefore, can be employed to print a custom label on each compact disc. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,629 entitled “CD Transporter” issued Mar. 31, 1988 for a description of a compact disc transporter which can be used to move a compact disc between a data recorder and a printer. This transporter moves a single compact disc at a time between stations and places completed compact discs in a stack.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for the compact disc handling apparatus and method which more efficiently transports compact discs between stations and provides easy access to pre-determined compact discs which have been processed.